Dog Food for Brain Health: Key Ingredients

Physical stimuli through playtime and training will benefit your dog’s mental health. It is equally important to provide your dog with a healthy diet to support cognitive health from puppy to senior. Nutrients like antioxidants, protein, probiotics and Omega 3 play an important role in brain development as well as cognitive health and should be a part of your dog’s daily diet.

It’s crucial to scrutinize the ingredients list of your dog’s food to ensure it contains the essential nutrients mentioned above. Also, feed your dog an age-appropriate diet, as different life stages call for different nutritional needs for the brain as well.

Antioxidant-rich diet improves brain health

Antioxidants can play a vital role in keeping our dog’s brain healthy. Vitamins B, C, and E, as well as zinc, selenium, choline, beta-carotene, lycopene, and lutein, are important for cognitive function. These vitamins, antioxidants, and minerals help to protect the brain from free radical damage and support normal functioning.

Think of free radicals as small wildfires within the body. Left unchecked, they can spread and cause widespread damage. Vitamins, antioxidants, and minerals act like firefighters, helping to control these ‘fires,’ protecting the brain from damage and supporting its normal functioning.

Foods like blueberries, rooibos tea, and carrots give your dog antioxidants. A little tip I used (before we developed Nala Health) is adding mushed blueberries to your dog’s kibble a few times a week for an antioxidant boost.

DHA omega 3 and brain function

DHA omega-3 is an essential fatty acid particularly important during early development. Puppies get 70 percent of their adult brain mass by 6 weeks of age and 90 percent by 12 weeks. Puppies are limited in the amount of DHA they can produce themselves, so they must get it from their mother (prenatally and when nursing) and from food, once they are eating on their own.

If your dog is pregnant, ensure she eats a diet rich in DHA. She can eat commercial puppy foods, which usually contain appropriate levels of DHA.

Protein and your dog’s temperament

Protein and its building blocks, amino acids, are essential for our dogs’ physical and mental health. Amino acids such as tryptophan, tyrosine, histidine, and arginine help produce neurotransmitters that are important for cognitive health and mood. Hyperactivity, territorial behaviour, dominance and aggression may be lower in dogs who eat high-quality protein providing enough amounts of tryptophan. 

Protein is found in edible insects, meat, fish, eggs, and pulses like lentils, chickpeas, and peas. The amino acids tryptophan and L-Carnitine can also be beneficial, so look for food (such as Nala Health) that has added these to their recipe.

Complex carbohydrates

Sweet potatoes, carrots, spinach and other leafy greens, blueberries, blackberries, and some healthy grains like oats, millet, sorghum, and barley are great sources of beneficial carbohydrates and antioxidants. Carbohydrates (glucose) are the brain’s preferred source of energy and provide an excellent slow-release source of “power” for our dogs. It can improve calmness due to maintaining a feeling of fullness after meals. Fibre can lower hunger-related stress resulting in a calmer, less anxious dog.

Dogs can also get “hangry”. Intense exercise or prolonged physical activity can rapidly deplete glycogen stores and cause so-called exercise-induced hypoglycemia. This is especially common in sled dogs, hunting dogs, and other highly active dogs.

Reactive hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) in dogs is quite common and can cause lethargy, irritability, and anxiousness. Some complex carbs 30 min after high-intensity training can stabilise the blood sugar level. Sometimes one can use “diet manipulation” as a tool to change an unwanted behaviour, focusing on tryptophan, B6, complex carbohydrates, protein levels, antioxidants, etc.

In older dogs, glucose metabolism becomes less efficient, leaving a gap in the brain’s energy requirement.

Probiotics, gut health, and mental health

The gut-brain axis describes the communication between the gut and the brain. This happens via the vagus nerve and signal molecules produced by bacteria in the gut (communications between the central and enteric nervous systems). A good environment in the gut can assist with brain biochemistry and behaviour. Some probiotics have even been shown to improve symptoms of stress, anxiety, and depression. The gut microbiome produces neurotransmitters like:

• Serotonin: contributes to feelings of happiness and well-being
• GABA: helps control feelings of fear and anxiety
• Glutamate: plays a major role in learning and memory
• Dopamine: involved in the feeling of pleasure, satisfaction, and motivation
  

Butyrate and gut microbes are important for forming the barrier between the brain and the blood (blood-brain barrier). Production of butyrate, a short-chain fatty acid, occurs when the gut microbes digest fibre. They also produce propionate and acetate, which play a role in appetite control.

Brain food for different life stages

Puppies

This life stage calls for a diet that supports active learning. A dog’s brain is usually fully formed by the age of 2 years, and optimal nutrition both during pregnancy, through mother’s milk and a complete, healthy diet formulated especially for puppies will support brain health.

Senior dogs

As our dog ages, the blood-brain barrier becomes more permeable, allowing some potentially harmful particles access to brain cells and contributing to cognitive decline. Your dog might seem forgetful or disorientated and experience separation anxiety. He/she might wake up at night, start to have accidents inside, be more restless, and bark without a cause. These can be signs of cognitive dysfunction syndrome, or CDS. 

The progression is gradual; early symptoms can also be linked to impaired hearing and/or eyesight. Your vet will be able to determine if the problems are actually caused by cognitive dysfunction syndrome.

If your dog is diagnosed with CDS, prescription medications are available to manage the disease. You can also help slow down the progression by keeping your dog’s brain fit by mental training and providing him/her with age-appropriate food (Senior food). Mental stimulation through playing games is also important.

Feeding your dog a diet that has a balanced amount of these essential nutrients can help to ensure that they maintain cognitive health and remain alert as they age. Read more about how to care for your ageing dog.

Summary

Providing your dog with a balanced diet that includes high-quality protein, healthy fat, and complex carbohydrates and avoiding artificial taste, colour, antibiotics, growth hormones, preservatives, pesticides, etc, will support brain health. Dogs are omnivores, and we need to fulfil their nutritional needs.

Consult your vet before supplementing your dog’s diet, especially with fat-soluble vitamins. Balance is the key. Read the ingredient list on the dog food to make sure you know all the different ingredients. Below are the brain food ingredients that may benefit brain function and cognitive abilities:

• Balanced omega-3, preferably from marine algae. Also found in fatty fish and fish oils.
• L-Carnitine may help prevent age-related cognitive decline and improve memory.
• Tryptophan may reduce anxiety and aggression and can be beneficial for dogs with separation anxiety.
• Prebiotics/fibre, probiotics, and fermented food will support a well-functioning microflora in the gut which may benefit the gut-brain axis.

(Brain) food for thought

At Nala Health, we have formulated our food for your dog’s health and well-being through all stages of life. We provide puppy food, food for small adults, medium to large adults, and senior dogs.

For cognitive function and health, we have a balanced source of omega-3 and 6, antioxidants, L-Carnitine, and Choline. We also have beneficial fibre and probiotics supporting the gut microbiome, which is important for the gut-brain axis. 

Nala Health dog food contains all the vitamins and minerals needed for your furry friend to thrive, including B9 (folic acid), which is important for the nervous system (important during pregnancy too, as it might prevent birth defects of the brain and spine).

Explore our wholesome products today and let us know what you think!